Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. announced a major partnership today that will integrate Alexa and Cortana, giving the two virtual assistants complete access to each other’s tools.

Once the integration is complete, Alexa users will be able to access Cortana by saying “Alexa, open Cortana,” and Cortana users will be able to access Alexa by saying, “Cortana, open Alexa.” The new commands give users a roundabout way to access the tools available to each assistant.

Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said that making Cortana available across any device is “a key priority for” for the company. Meanwhile, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos seemed to suggest that the future of voice assistants is collaborative rather than competitive.

“The world is big and so multifaceted,” said Bezos. “There are going to be multiple successful intelligent agents, each with access to different sets of data and with different specialized skill areas. Together, their strengths will complement each other and provide customers with a richer and even more helpful experience.”

The two companies said Alexa and Cortana will “begin talking to each other” later this year, but they did not give a specific date for when the integration will be complete.

Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, said the new partnership between Amazon and Microsoft could be a major win for both companies.

“This agreement makes strategic sense as Alexa gets access to over 500 million Windows 10 seats and also gets access to high-quality productivity skills,” Moorhead told SiliconANGLE. “Cortana gets access to very diverse Alexa consumer and home automation skills.”

Moorhead added that the agreement between Amazon and Microsoft will shake up the digital assistant market, and he said the deal will especially put pressure on Google Inc., whose Google Assistant powers its Home smart speaker. Google Assistant is also the default digital assistant on newer Android devices, such as the Google Pixel.

Alexa and Cortana users will soon be able to access the tools available to each assistant through one device, but some users may be turned off by having to summon Cortana as an app on Alexa and vice versa. However, Moorhead says that there is little the two companies can do to avoid this. “While not optimal, we must realize that each assistant – Apple Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon Alexa – all use their unique language, and, therefore, would need to be separate,” he said.

Although the languages used by the various virtual assistants are not directly compatible, third-party services such as Aiqudo Inc. have popped up to act as universal translators, allowing virtual assistants to talk to one another through an app middleman. Of course, this still means that users have to use yet another app to access the features they want for the different digital assistants, and if partnerships such as the one announced by Amazon and Microsoft today become the norm, third-party assistant services may find it tough to compete.

Photo: Amazon